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[Prom the American Journal op Sc fnce. Vol. XL1I, October, 1891. J 



USEFUL PLANTS OF THE FUTUEE. 



SOME OF THE 



POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



By George Lincoln Goodale, Cambridge, Mass. 



1891. 



With Compliments of the Author. 




i 



Dr. Goodale ventures to ask his correspondents to send him any 
facts of interest regarding the local or exceptional uses of any plants, 
especially of those wild plants which have not yet found, a place in the 
economic lists. 



USEFUL PLANTS OF THE FUTURE. 



SOME OF THE 



Possibilities of Economic Botany, 



The Presidential Address for 1891, 

Before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at 
the Washington meeting. 



By George Lincoln Goodale, M.D., LL.D., 

Fisher Professor of Natural History in Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 



NEW HAVEN: 

TTJTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR, PRINTERS, 
1891 . 



S3 10 " 1 

A7 



In Exchange 



[From the American Journal of Science, Vol. XLII, October, 1891.] 



Art. XXVII. — Some of the Possibilities of Economic Botany; 
by George Lincoln Goodale. 

[Presidential address delivered before the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, at Washington, August, 1891.] 

Our Association demands of its president, on his retirement 
from office, some account of matters connected with the 
department of science in which he is engaged. 

But you will naturally expect that, before I enter upon the 
discharge of this duty, I should present a report respecting 
the mission with which you entrusted me last year. You 
desired me to attend the annual meeting of the Australasian 
Association for the Advancement of Science, and express your 
good wishes for its success. Compliance with your request 
did not necessitate any material change in plans formed long 
ago to visit the South Seas ; some of the dates and the 
sequence of places had to be modified ; otherwise the early 
plans were fully carried out. 

I can assure you that it seemed very strange to reverse the 
seasons, and find mid-summer in January. But in the meeting 
with our brethren of the southern hemisphere, nothing else was 
reversed. The official welcome to your representative was as 
cordial, and the response by the members was as kindly as that 
which the people in the northern hemisphere would give to 
any fellow-worker coining from beyond the sea. 

The meeting to which I was commissioned was held in 
January last in the Cathedral city of Christchurch, New Zea- 
land, the seat of Canterbury College. 



272 G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

Considering the distance between the other colonies and 
New Zealand, the meeting was well attended. From Hobart, 
Tasmania, to the southern harbor, known as the Bluff, in New 
Zealand, the sea voyage is only a little short of one thousand 
miles of rough water. From Sydney in New South Wales to 
Auckland, New Zealand, it is over twelve hundred miles. If, 
therefore, one journeys from Adelaide in South Australia, to 
Christchurch, New Zealand, where the meeting was held he 
travels by land and by sea over two thousand miles. From 
Brisbane in Queensland, it is somewhat farther. Although 
certain concessions are made to the members of the Associa- 
tion, the fares by rail and by steamship are high, so that 
a journey from any one of the seats of learning in Australia 
proper to New Zealand is formidable on account of its cost. 
It is remarkable that so large a number of members should 
have met together under such circumstances, and it speaks well 
for the great strength and vigor of the Association. 

The Australasian Association is modelled rather more closely 
after the British Association than is our own. The president 
delivers his address upon his inauguration. There are no gen- 
eral business meetings, but all the details are attended to by 
an executive committee answering to our council ; none except 
the members and associates are invited to attend even the 
sectional meetings and there are some other differences be- 
tween the three associations. The secretaries stated to me 
their conviction that their organization and methods are better 
adapted to their surroundings than ours would be, and all of 
their arguments seemed cogent. Although the Association has 
been in existence but three years, it has accomplished great 
good. It has brought together workers in different fields for 
conference and mutual benefit ; it has diminished misunder- 
standings, and has strengthened friendships. In short it is 
doing the same kind of good work that we believe ours is now 
doing, and in much the same way. 

Your message was delivered at the general evening session 
immediately before the induction of the new officers. The retir- 
ing president, Baron von Mueller, and the incoming president 
Sir James Hector, in welcoming your representative, expressed 
their pleasure that you should have seen fit to send personal 
greetings. 

In replying to their welcome, I endeavored to convey your 
felicitations upon the pronounced success of the Association, 
and your best wishes for a prosperous future. In your name, 
I extended a cordial invitation to the members to gratify us 
by their presence at some of our annual meetings, and I have 
good reason to believe that this invitation will be accepted. I 
know it will be most thoroughly and hospitably honored by us. 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 273 

On the morning of the session to which I refer, we received 
in the daily papers, a cable telegram relative to the Bering Sea 
difficulties (which were then in an acute stage). In your stead, 
I ventured to say, " In these days of disquieting dispatches, 
when there are rumors of trouble between Great Britain, and 
the United States, it is pleasant to think that ' blood is thicker 
than water.' " This utterance was taken to mean that we are 
all English-speaking kinsmen, and even before I had finished, 
the old proverb was received with prolonged applause. 

The next meeting of the Australasian Association is to be 
held in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, under the presidency 
of the governor, Sir Robert Hamilton. The energetic secre- 
taries Professor Liversidge, Professor Hutton and Mr. Morton, 
promise a cordial welcome to any of our members visiting the 
Association. Should you accept the invitation, you will enjoy 
every feature of the remarkable island, Tasmania, where the 
meeting is to be held. You will be delighted by Tasmanian 
scenery, vegetation and climate, but that which will give you 
the greatest enjoyment in this as in other English South Sea 
colonies, is the fact that you are among English-speaking 
friends half way around the world. You will find that their 
efficient Association is devoted to the advancement of science 
and the promotion of sound learning. In short you will be 
made to feel at home. 

The subject which I have selected for the valedictory 
address deals with certain industrial, commercial and economic 
questions : nevertheless it lies wholly within the domain of 
botany. I invite you to examine with me some of the possi- 
bilities of economic botany. 

Of course, when treating a topic which is so largely specu- 
lative as this, it is difficult and unwise to draw a hard and fast 
line between possibilities and probabilities. Nowadays, possi- 
bilities are so often realized rapidly that they become accom- 
plished facts before we are aware. 

In asking what are the possibilities that other plants than 
those we now use may be utilized we enter upon a many-sided 
inquiry. * Speculation is rife as to the coming man. May we 
not ask what plants the coming man will use ? 

There is an enormous disproportion between the total num- 
ber of species of plants known to botanical science and the 
number of those which are employed by man. 

The species of flowering plants already described and named 
are about one hundred and seven thousand. Acquisitions from 
unexplored or imperfectly explored regions may increase the 

* For references, notes, etc., see p. 300. 



274 G. L. G-oodale— Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

aggregate perhaps one-tenth, so that we are within very safe 
limits in taking the number of existing species to be somewhat 
above one hundred and ten thousand. 1 

JMow if we should make a comprehensive list of all the 
flowering plants which are cultivated on what we may call a 
fairly large scale at the present day, placing therein all food 2 
and forage plants, all those which are grown for timber and 
cabinet woods, for fibres and cordage^ for tanning materials, 
dyes, resins, rubber, gums, oils, perfumes and medicines, we 
could bring together barely three hundred species. If we 
should add to this short catalogue all the species, which with- 
out cultivation, can be used by man, we should find it consid- 
erably lengthened. A great many products of the classes just 
referred to are derived in commerce from wild plants, but 
exactly how much their addition would extend the list, it is 
impossible in the present state of knowledge to determine. 
Every enumeration of this character is likely to contain errors 
from' two sources : first, it would be sure to contain some 
species which have outlived their real usefulness, and, secondly, 
owing to the chaotic condition of the literature of the subject, 
omissions would occur. 

But after all proper exclusions and additions have been 
made, the total number of species of flowering plants utilized 
to any considerable extent by man in his civilized state does 
not exceed, in fact it does not quite reach, one per cent. 

The disproportion between the plants which are known and 
those which are used becomes much greater when we take 
into account the species of flowerless plants also. Of the five 
hundred ferns and their allies we employ for other than 
decorative purposes only five ; the mosses and liverworts, 
roughly estimated at live hundred species, have only four 
which are directly used by man. There are comparatively few 
Algae, Fungi, or Lichens which have extended use. 

Therefore, when we take the flowering and flowerless to- 
gether, the percentage of utilized plants falls far below the 
estimate made for the flowering alone. 

Such a ratio between the number of species known and the 
number used justifies the inquiry which I have proposed for 
discussion at this time — namely, can the short list of useful 
plants be increased to advantage ? If so, how ? 

This is a practical question ; it is likewise a very old one. 
In one form or another, by one people or another, it has been 
asked from early times. In the dawn of civilization, mankind 
inherited from savage ancestors certain plants, which had been 
found amenable to simple cultivation, and the products of 
these plants supplemented the spoils of the chase and of the 
sea. The question which we ask now was asked then. Wild 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 275 

plants were examined for new uses ; primitive agriculture and 
horticulture extended their bounds in answer to this inquiry. 
Age after age has added slowly and cautiously to the list of 
cultivable and utilizable plants, but the aggregate additions 
have been as we have seen, comparatively slight. 

The question has thus no charm of novelty, but it is as prac- 
tical to-day as in early ages In fact, at the present time, in 
view of all the appliances at the command of modern science 
and under the strong light cast by recent biological and tech- 
nological research, the inquiry which we propose assumes great 
importance. One phase of it is being attentively and syste- 
matically regarded in the great Experiment Stations, another 
phase is being studied in the laboratories of Chemistry and 
Pharmacy, while still another presents itself in the museums 
of Economic Botany. 

Our question may be put in other words, which are even 
more practical. What present likelihood is there that our 
tables may, one of these days, have other vegetables, fruits and 
cereals, than those which we use now ? "What chance is there 
that new fibers may supplement or even replace those which 
we spin and weave, that woven fabrics may take on new veg- 
etable colors, that flowers and leaves may yield new perfumes 
and flavors? What probability is there that new remedial 
agents may be found among plants neglected or now wholly 
unknown? The answer which I shall attempt is not in the 
nature of a prophecy ; it can claim no rank higher than that 
of a reasonable conjecture. 

At the outset it must be said that synthetic chemistry has 
made and is making some exceedingly short cuts across this 
field of research, giving us artificial dyes, odors, flavors, and 
medicinal substances, of such excellence that it sometimes 
seems as if before long the old-fashioned chemical processes in 
the plant itself would play only a subordinate part. But although 
there is no telling where the triumphs of chemical synthesis will 
end, it is not probable that it will ever interfere essentially 
with certain classes of economic plants. It is impossible to 
conceive of a synthetic fiber or a synthetic fruit. Chemistry 
gives us fruit-ethers and fruit-acids, and after a while may pro- 
vide us with a true artificial sugar and amorphous starch ; but 
artificial fruits worth the eating or artificial fibers worth the 
spinning are not coming in our day. 

Despite the extraordinary achievements of synthetic chemis- 
try, the world must be content to accept for a long time to 
come, the results of the intelligent labor of the cultivator of 
the soil and the explorer of the forest. Improvement of the 
good plants we now utilize, and the discovery of new ones 
must remain the care of lar^e numbers of diligent students 



276 G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

and assiduous workmen. So that, in fact, our question resolves 
itself into this : can these practical investigators hope to make 
any substantial advance? 

It will be well to glance first at the manner in which our 
wild and cultivated plants have been singled out for use. We 
shall, in the case of each class, allude to the methods by which 
the selected plants have been improved, or their products 
fully utilized. Thus looking the ground over, although not 
minutely, we can see what new plants are likely to be added 
to our list. Our illustrations can, at the best, be only fragmen- 
tary. 

We shall not have time to treat the different divisions of 
the subject in precisely the proportions which would be de- 
manded by an exhaustive essay ; an address on an occasion like 
this must pass lightly over some matters which other oppor- 
tunities for discussion could properly examine with great ful- 
ness. Unfortunately, some of the minor topics which must be 
thus passed by, possess considerable popular interest ; one of 
these is the first subordinate question introductory to our task, 
namely, how were our useful cultivated and wild plants se- 
lected for use ? 

A study of the early history of plants employed for cere- 
monial purposes, in religious solemnities, in incantations, and 
for medicinal uses, shows how slender has sometimes been the 
claim of certain plants to the possession of any real utility. 
But some of the plants which have been brought to notice in 
these ways have afterwards been found to be utilizable in some 
fashion or other. This is often seen in the cases of the plants 
which have been suggested for medicinal use through the absurd 
doctrine of signatures. 3 

It seems clear that, except in modern times, useful plants 
have been selected almost wholly by chance, and it may well 
be said that a selection by accident is no selection at all. Now- 
adays, the new selections are based on analogy. One of the 
most striking illustrations of the modern method is afforded 
by the utilization of bamboo fiber for electric lamps. 

Some of the classes of useful plants must be passed by with- 
out present discussion ; others alluded to slightly, while still 
other groups fairly representative of selection and improve- 
ment will be more fully described. In this latter class would 
naturally come, of course, the food-plants known as 

I. The Cereals. 

Let us look first at these. 

The species of grasses which yield these seed-like fruits, or 
as we might call them for our purpose seeds, are numerous ; 4 
twenty of them are cultivated largely in the Old World, but 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 277 

only six of them are likely to be very familiar to you, namely, 
wheat, rice, barley, oats, rye and maize. The last of these is of 
American origin, despite doubts which have been cast upon it. 
It was not known in the Old "World until after the discovery 
of the New. It has probably been very long in cultivation. 
The others all belong to the Old World. Wheat and barley 
have been cultivated from the earliest times ; according to 
De Candolle, the chief authority in these matters, about four 
thousand years. Later came rye and oats, both of which have 
been known in cultivation for at least two thousand years. 
Even the shorter of these periods gives time enough for wide 
variation, and as is to be expected there are numerous varieties 
of them all. For instance, Yilmorin, in 1880, figured sixty-six 
varieties of wheat with plainly distinguishable characters. 5 

If the Chinese records are to be trusted, rice has been culti- 
vated for a period much longer than that assigned by our 
history and traditions to the other cereals, and the varieties are 
correspondingly numerous. It is said that in Japan above 
three hundred varieties are grown on irrigated lands, and more 
than one hundred on uplands. 6 

With the possible exception of rice, not one of the species 
of cereals is certainly known in the wild state. 7 Now and then 
specimens have been gathered in the East which can be re- 
ferred to the probable types from which our varieties have 
sprung, but doubt has been thrown upon everyone of these 
cases. It has been shown conclusively that it is easy for a 
plant to escape from cultivation and persist in its new home 
even for a long time in a near approximation to cultivated 
form. Hence, we are forced to receive all statements regarding 
the wild forms with caution. But it may be safely said that if 
all the varieties of cereals which we now cultivate were to be 
swept out of existence, we could hardly know where to turn 
for wild species with which to begin again. We could not 
know with certainty. 

To bring this fact a little more vividly to our minds, let us 
suppose a case. Let us imagine that a blight without parallel 
has brought to extinction all the forms of wheat, rice, rye, 
oats, barley and maize, now in cultivation, but without affect- 
ing the other grasses or any other form of vegetable food. 
Mankind would be obliged to subsist upon the other kindly 
fruits of the earth ; upon root-crops, tubers, leguminous seeds, 
and so on. Some of the substitutions might be amusing in any 
other time than that of a threatened famine. Others would be 
far from appetizing under any condition, and only a few would 
be wholly satisfying even to the most pronounced vegetarian. 
In short, it would seem, from the first, that the cereals fill a place 
occupied by no other plants. The composition of the grains 



278 G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

is theoretically and practically almost perfect as regards food 
ratio between the nitrogenous matters and the starch group ; 
and the food value, as it is termed, is high. But aside from 
these considerations, it would be seen that for safety of preser- 
vation through considerable periods, and for convenience of 
transportation, the cereals take highest rank. Pressure would 
come from every side to compel us to find equivalents for the 
lost grains. From this predicament I believe that the well- 
equipped Experiment Stations and the Agricultural Depart- 
ments in Europe and America would by and by extricate us. 
Continuing this hypothetical case, let us next inquire how the 
Stations would probably go to work in the uphill task of 
making partially good a well-nigh irreparable loss. 

The whole group of relatives of the lost cereals would be 
passed in strict review. Size of grain, strength and vigor and 
plasticity of stock, adaptability to different surroundings, and 
flexibility in variation would be examined with scrupulous care. 

But the range of experiment would, under the circum- 
stances, extend far beyond the relatives of our present cereals. 
It would embrace an examination of the other grasses which 
are even now cultivated for their grains, but which are so little 
known outside of their own limit, that it is a surprise to hear 
about them. For example, the Millets, great and small, would 
be investigated. These grains, so little known here, form an 
important crop in certain parts of the east. One of the leading 
authorities on the subject 8 states that the Millets constitute " a 
more important crop " in India " than either Rice or Wheat, and 
are grown more extensively, being raised from Madras in the 
south to Rajputana in the north. They occupy about eighty- 
three per cent of the food-grain area in Bombay and Sinde, 
forty-one per cent in the Punjab, thirty-nine per cent in the 
Central Provinces," " in all about thirty million acres." 

Having chosen proper subjects for experimenting, the culti- 
vators would make use of certain well-known principles. By 
simple selection of the more desirable seeds, strains would be 
secured to suit definite wants, and these strains would be kept 
as races, or attempts would be made to intensify wished-for 
characters. By skillful hybridizing of the first, second and 
higher orders, tendencies to wider variation would be obtained 
and the process of selection considerably expedited. 9 

It is out of our power to predict how much time would 
elapse before satisfactory substitutes for our cereals could be 
found. In the improvement of the grains of grasses other 
than those which have been very long under cultivation, experi- 
ments have been few, scattered and indecisive. Therefore we 
are as badly off for time-ratios as are the geologists and 
archaeologists, in their statements of elapsed periods. It is 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 279 

impossible for us to ignore the fact that there appear to be 
occasions in the life of a species when it seems to be peculiarly 
susceptible to the influences of its surroundings. 10 A species, 
like a carefully laden ship, represents a balancing of forces 
within and without. Disturbance may come through variation 
from within, as from a shifting of the cargo, or, in some cases 
from without. We may suppose both forces to be active in 
producing variation, a change in the internal condition render- 
ing the plant more susceptible to any change in its surround- 
ings. Under the influence of any marked disturbance, a state 
of unstable equilibrium may be brought about, at which times 
the species as such is easily acted upon by very slight agencies. 

One of the, most marked of these derangements is a conse- 
quent of cross-breeding within the extreme limits of varieties. 
The resultant forms in such cases can persist only by close 
breeding or by propagation from buds or the equivalents of 
buds. .Disturbances like these arise unexpectedly in the ordi- 
nary course of nature, giving us sports of various kinds. 
These critical periods however, are not unwelcome, since skill- 
ful cultivators can take advantage of them. In this very field 
much has been accomplished. An attentive study of the 
sagacious work done by Thomas Andrew Knight shows to 
what extent this can be done. 11 But we must confess that it 
would be absolutely impossible to predict with certainty how 
long or how short would be the time before new cereals or 
acceptable equivalents for them would be provided. Upheld 
by the confidence which I have in the intelligence, ingenuity, 
and energy of our Experiment Stations, I may say that the 
time would not probably exceed that of two generations of our 
race, or half a century. 

In now laying aside our hypothetical illustration, I venture 
to ask why it is that our Experiment Stations and other insti- 
tutions dealing with plants and their improvement, do not 
undertake investigations like those which I have sketched? 
Why are not some of the grasses other than our present 
cereals studied with reference to their adoption as food grains % 
One of these species will naturally suggest itself to you all, 
namely, the Wild Rice of the Lakes. 12 Observations have 
shown that, were it not for the difficulty of harvesting these 
grains which fall too easily when they are ripe, they might be 
utilized. But attentive search might find or educe some 
variety of Zizania, with a more persistent grain and a better 
yield. There are two of our sea-shore grasses which have 
excellent grains, but are of small yield. Why are not these, 
or better ones which might be suggested by observation, taken 
in hand ? 



280 G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

The reason is plain. We are all content to move along in 
lines of least resistance, and are disinclined to make a fresh 
start. It is merely leaving well enough alone, and so far as 
the cereals are concerned it is indeed well enough. The 
generous grains of modern varieties of wheat and barley com- 
pared with the well-preserved charred vestiges found in Greece 
by Schliemann, 13 and in the lake-dwellings, 14 are satisfactory in 
every respect. Improvements, however, are making in many 
directions; and in the cereals we now have, we possess far 
better and more satisfactory material for further improvement 
both in quality and as regards range of distribution than we 
could reasonably hope to have from other grasses. 

From the cereals we may turn to the interesting groups of 
plants comprised under the general term 

II. Vegetables. 

Under this term it will be convenient for us to include all 
plants which are employed for culinary purposes, or for table 
use such as salads and relishes. 

The potato and sweet potato, the pumpkin and squash, the 
red or capsicum peppers, and the tomato, are of American 
origin. 

All the others are, most probably, natives of the Old World. 
Only one plant coming in this class has been derived from 
Southern Australasia, namely, New Zealand Spinach, (Tetra- 
gonia. 

Among the vegetables and salad-plants longest in cultivation 
we may enumerate the following — turnip, onion, cabbage, 
purslane, the large bean (Faba), chick-pea, lentil and one species 
of pea, garden pea. To these an antiquity of at least four 
thousand years is ascribed. 

Next to these, in point of age, come the radish, carrot, beet, 
garlic, garden cress, and celery, lettuce, asparagus and the leek. 
Three or four leguminous seeds are to be placed in the same 
category, as are also the black peppers. 

Of more recent introduction the most prominent are, the 
parsnip, oyster plant, parsley, artichoke, endive and spinach. 

From these lists I have purposely omitted a few which 
belong exclusively to the tropics, such as certain yams. 

The number of varieties of these vegetables is astounding. 
It is, of course, impossible to discriminate between closely 
allied varieties which have been introduced by gardeners and 
seedsmen under different names, but which are essentially 
identical, and we must therefore have recourse to a conserva- 
tive authority, Yilmorin, 16 from whose work a few examples 
have been selected. The varieties which he accepts are suf- 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 281 

ficiently well distinguished to admit of description and in most 
instances of delineation, without any danger of confusion. 
The potato has, he says, innumerable varieties, of which he 
accepts forty as easily distinguishable and worthy of a place in 
a general list, but he adds also a list, comprising, of coarse, 
synonyms, of thirty-two French, twenty-six English, nineteen 
American and eighteen German varieties. • The following 
numbers speak for themselves, all being selected in the same 
careful manner as those of the potato : celery more than 
twenty ; carrot more than thirty ; beet, radish and potato more 
than forty ; lettuce and onion more than fifty ; turnip more 
than seventy ; cabbage, kidney bean and garden pea more than 
one hundred. . 

The amount of horticultural work which these numbers 
represent is enormous. Each variety established as a race 
(that is a variety which comes true to seed) has been evolved 
by the same sort of patient care and waiting which we have 
seen is necessary in the case of cereals, but the time of wait- 
ing has not been as a general thing so long. 

You will permit me to quote from Vilmorin 16 also an account 
of a common plant, which will show how wide is the range of 
variation and how obscure are the indications in the wild plant 
of its available possibilities. The example shows how com- 
pletely hidden are the potential variations useful to mankind. 

" Cabbage, a plant which is indigenous in Europe and Western 
Asia, is one of the vegetables which has been cultivated from the 
earliest time. The ancients were well acquainted with it, and 
certainly possessed several varieties of the head-forming kinds. 
The great antiquity of its culture may be inferred from the im- 
mense number of varieties which are now in existence, and from 
the very important modifications which have been produced in 
the characteristics in the original or parent plant. 

The wild Cabbage, such as it now exists on the coasts of 
England and France, is a perennial plant with broad-lobed, undu- 
lated, thick, smooth leaves, covered with a glaucous bloom. The 
stem attains a height of from nearly two and a half to over three 
feet, and bears at the top a spike of yellow or sometimes white 
flowers. All the cultivated varieties present the same peculiarities 
in their inflorescence, but up to the time of flowering they exhibit 
most marked differences from each other and from the original 
wild plant. In most of the Cabbages, it is chiefly the leaves that 
are developed hj cultivation ; these for the most part become 
imbricated or overlap one another closely, so as to form a more 
or less compact head, the heart or interior of which is composed 
of the central undeveloped shoot and the younger leaves next it. 
The shape of the head is spherical, sometimes flattened, sometimes 
conical. All the varieties which form heads in this way are 
known by the general name of Cabbages, while other kinds with 



282 G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

large branching leaves which never form heads are distinguished 
by the name of Borecole or Kale. 

In some kinds, the flower-stems have been so modified by cul- 
ture as to become transformed into a thick, fleshy tender mass, 
the growth and enlargement of which are produced at the expense 
of the flowers which are absorbed and rendered abortive. Such 
are the Broccolis and Cauliflowers." 

But this plant has other transformations. 

"In other kinds, the leaves retain their ordinary dimensions, 
while the stem or principal root has been brought by cultivation 
to assume the shape of a large ball or turnip, as in the case of the 
plants known as Kohl-Rabi and Turnip-rooted Cabbage or Swedish 
Turnip. And lastly, there are varieties in which cultivation and 
selection have produced modifications in the ribs of the leaves, as 
in the Couve Tronchuda, or in the axillary shoots (as in Brussels 
sprouts), or in several organs together, as in the Marrow Kales, 
and the Neapolitan Curled Kale." 

Here are important morphological changes like those to. 
which Professor Bailey has called attention in the case of the 
tomato. 

Suppose we are strolling along the beach at some of the sea- 
side resorts of France, and should fall in with this coarse cru- 
ciferous plant, with its sprawling leaves and strong odor. 
Would there be anything in its appearance to lead us to search 
for its hidden merit as a food plant? What could we see in it 
which would give it a preference over a score of other plants 
at our feet ? Again, suppose we are journeying in the high 
lands of Peru, and should meet with a strong-smelling plant of 
the Night-shade family, bearing a small irregular fruit, of sub- 
acid taste and of peculiar flavor. We will further imagine 
that the peculiar- taste strikes our fancy, and we conceive that 
the plant has possibilities as a source of food. We should be 
led by our knowledge of the potato, probably a native of the 
same region, to think that this allied plant might be safely 
transferred to a northern climate, but would there be promise 
of enough future usefulness in such a case as this, to warrant 
our carrying the plant North as an article of food ? Suppose, 
further, we should ascertain that the fruit in question was 
relished not only by the natives of its home, but that it had 
found favor among the tribes of South Mexico and Central 
America, and had been cultivated by them until it had attained 
a large size ; should we be strengthened in our venture ? Let 
us go one step further still. Suppose that having decided upon 
the introduction of the plant, and having urged everybody to 
try it, we should find it discarded as a fruit, but taking a place 
in gardens as a curiosity under an absurd name, or as a basis 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 283 

for preserves and pickles ; should we not look upon our experi- 
ment in the introduction of this new plant as a failure? This 
is not a hypothetical case. 

The Tomato, 17 the plant in question, was cultivated in Europe 
as long ago as 1554 ; 18 it was known in Virginia in 1781 and in 
the Northern States in 1785 ; but it found its way into favor 
slowly, even in this land of its origin. A credible witness 
states that in Salem it was almost impossible to induce people 
to eat or even taste of the fruit. And yet, as you are well aware, 
its present cultivation on an enormous scale in Europe and this 
country is scarcely sufficient to meet the increasing demand. 

A plant which belongs to the family of the tomato has been 
known to the public under the name of the strawberry tomato. 
The juicy yellow or orange-colored fruit is enclosed in a papery 
calyx of large size. The descriptions which were published 
when the plant was placed on the market were attractive, and 
were not exaggerated to a misleading extent. But, as you all 
know, the plant never gained any popularity. If we look at 
these two cases carefully we shall see that what appears to be 
caprice on the part of the public is at bottom common sense. 
The cases illustrate as well as any which are at command, the 
difficulties which surround the whole subject of the introduc- 
tion of new foods. 

Before asking specifically in what direction we shall look for 
new vegetables I must be pardoned for calling attention, in 
passing, to a very few of the many which are already in limited 
use in Europe and this country, but which merit a wider em- 
ployment. Cardon, or Carcloon ; Celeriac, or turnip-rooted 
celery ; Eetticus, or corn-salad ; Martynia ; Salsify ; Sea-kale ; 
and numerous small salads, are examples of neglected treasures 
of the vegetable garden. 

The following which are even less known may be mentioned 
as fairly promising. 19 

(1) Arracacia esculenta, called Arracacha, belonging to the 
Parsley family. It is extensively cultivated in some of the 
northern States of South America. The stems are swollen 
near the base, and produce tuberous enlargements filled with 
an excellent starch. Although the plant is of comparatively 
easy cultivation, efforts to introduce it into Europe have not 
been successful, but it is said to have found favor in both the 
Indies, and may prove useful in our Southern States. 

(2) Ullucus or Ollucus, another tuberous-rooted plant from 
nearly the same region, but belonging to the Beet or Spinach 
family: It has produced tubers of good size in England, but 
they are too waxy in consistence to dispute the place of the 
better tubers of the potato. The plant is worth investigating 
for our hot dry lands. 



284 G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

(3) A tuber-bearing relative of our common Hedge-nettle, 
or Stockys, is now cultivated on a large scale at Crosnes in 
France, for the Paris market. Its name in Paris is taken from 
the locality where it is now grown for use. Although its 
native country is Japan, it is called by some seedsmen Chinese 
Artichoke. At the present stage of cultivation, the tubers are 
small and are rather hard to keep, but it is thought " that both 
of these defects can be overcome or evaded." 21 Experiments 
indicate that we have in this species a valuable addition to our 
vegetables. We must next look at certain other neglected 
possibilities. 

Dr. Edward Palmer, 20 whose energy as a collector and acute- 
ness as an observer are known to you all, has brought together 
very interesting facts relative to the food-plants of our North 
American aborigines. Among the plants described by him 
there are a few which merit careful investigation. Against all 
of them, however, there lie the objections mentioned before, 
namely : 

(1) The long time required for their improvement, and 

(2) The difficulty of making them acceptable to the commu- 
nity, involving 

(3) The risk of total and mortifying failure. 

In the notes to this address the more prominent of these 
are enumerated. 

In 1854 the late Professor Gray called attention to the re- 
markable relations which exist between the plants of Japan and 
those of our Eastern coast. You will remember that he not 
only proved that the plants of the two regions had a common 
origin, but also emphasized the fact that many species of the 
two countries are almost identical. It is to that country which 
has yielded us so many useful and beautiful plants that we turn 
for new vegetables to supplement our present food-resources. 
One of these plants, namely, Stackys, has already been men- 
tioned as rather promising. There are others which are worth 
examination and perhaps acquisition. 

One of the most convenient places for a preliminary exami- 
nation of the vegetables of Japan is at the railroad stations on 
the longer lines, for instance, that running from Tokio to Kobe. 
For native consumption there are prepared luncheon boxes of 
two or three stories, provided with the simple and yet embar- 
rassing chop-sticks. It is worth the shock it causes one's nerves 
to invest in these boxes and try the vegetable contents. The 
bits of fish, flesh and fowl which one finds therein can be easily 
separated and discarded, upon which there will remain a few 
delicacies. The pervading odor of the box is that of aromatic 
vinegar. The generous portion of boiled rice is of excellent 
quality with every grain well softened and distinct, and this 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 285 

without anything else would suffice for a tolerable meal. In 
the boxes which have fallen under my observation there were 
sundry boiled roots, shoots and seeds which were not recog- 
nizable by me in their cooked form. Professor Georgeson, 22 
formerly of Japan, has kindly identified some of these for me, 
but he says " there are doubtless many others used occasionally." 

One may find sliced Lotus roots, roots of large Burdock, 
Lily bulbs, shoots of Ginger, pickled green Plums, beans of 
many sorts, boiled Chestnuts, nuts of the Gingko tree, pickled 
greens of various kinds, dried cucumbers, and several kinds of 
seaweeds. Some of the leaves and roots are cooked in much 
the same manner as beet-roots and beet -leaves are by us, and 
the general effect is not unappetizing. The boiled shoots are 
suggestive of only the tougher ends of asparagus. On the 
whole, I do not look back on Japanese railway luncheons with 
any longing which would compel me to advocate the indis- 
criminate introduction of the constituent vegetables here. 

But when the same vegetables are served in native inns, 
under more favorable culinary conditions, without the flavor 
of vinegar and of the pine wood of the luncheon boxes, they 
appear to be worthy of a trial in our horticulture, and I there- 
fore deal with one or two in greater detail. 

Professor Georgeson, whose advantages for acquiring a 
knowledge of the useful plants of Japan have been unusually 
good, has placed me under great obligations by communicating 
certain facts regarding some of the more promising plants of 
Japan which are not now used here. It should be said that 
several of these plants have already attracted the notice of the 
Agricultural Department in this country. 

The Soy Bean {Glycine hispida). This species is known 
here to some extent, but we do not have the early and best 
varieties. These beans replace meat in the diet of the common 
people. 

Mucuna {Mucuna capitata) and Dolichos {Dolichos cultra- 
tus) are pole beans possessing merit. 

Dioscorea; there are several varieties with palatable roots. 
f Years ago one of these was spoken of by the late Dr. Gray, as 
"possessing "excellent roots, if one could only dig them." 

Colocasia antiquorum has tuberous roots, which are nutri- 
tious. 

Conophallus KonjaJc has a large bulbous root, which is 
sliced, dried and beaten to a powder. It is an ingredient in 
cakes. 

Aralia cordata is cultivated for the shoots, and used as we 
use Asparagus. 

(Enanthe stolonifera and CryptotcBnia Canadensis are pala- 
table salad plants, the former being used also as greens. 



286 G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

There is little hope, if any, that we shall obtain from the 
hotter climates for our southern territory new species, of merit. 
The native markets in the tropical cities, like Colombo, Batavia, 
Singapore and Saigon, are rich in fruits, but outside of the native 
plants bearing these, nearly all the plants appear to be wholly 
in established lines of cultivation, such, for instance, as members 
of the Gourd and Night-shade families. 

Before we leave the subject of our coming vegetables, it will 
be well to note a naive-caution enjoined by Yilmorin in his 
wprk, Les Plantes Potageres. 23 

" Finally," he says, " we conclude the article devoted to each 
plant with a few remarks on the uses to which it may be ap- 
plied and on the parts of the plants which are to be so used. 
In many cases such remarks may be looked upon as idle words, 
and yet it would sometimes have been useful to have them 
when new plants were cultivated by us for the first time. For 
instance, the giant edible Burdock of Japan {Lappa edulis) 
was for a long time served up on our tables only as a wretchedly 
poor Spinach, because people would cook the leaves, whereas, 
in its native country, it is only cultivated for its tender fleshy 
roots." 

I trust you are not discouraged at this outlook for our coming 
vegetables. 

Two groups of improvable food-plants may be referred to 
before we pass to the next class, namely, edible fungi and the 
beverage plants. All botanists who have given attention to the 
matter agree with the late Dr. Curtis of North Carolina that 
we have in the unutilized mushrooms an immense amount of 
available nutriment of a delicious quality. It is not improbable 
that other fungi than our common " edible mushroom " will by 
and by be subjected to careful selection. 

The principal beverage-plants, Tea, Coffee and Chocolate, 
are all attracting the assiduous attention of cultivators. The 
first of these plants is extending its range at a marvellous rate 
of rapidity through India and Ceylon ; the second is threatened 
by the pests which have almost exterminated it in Ceylon, but 
a new species, with crosses therefrom, is promising to resist 
them successfully ; the third, Chocolate, is every year passing 
into lands farther from its original home. To these have been 
added the Kola, of a value as yet not wholly determined, and 
others are to augment the short list. 

III. Fruits. 

Botanically speaking, the cereal grains of which we have 
spoken, are true fruits, that is to say, are ripened ovaries, but 
for all practical purposes they may be regarded as seeds. The 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 287 

fruits, of which mention is now to be made, are those com- 
monly spoken of in our markets, as fruits. 

First of all, attention must be called to the extraordinary 
changes in the commercial relations of fruits by two direct 
causes, 

(1) The canning industry, and 

(2) Swift transportation by steamers and railroads. 

The effects of these two agencies are too well known to 
require more than this passing mention. By them the fruits 
of the best fruit-growing countries are carried to distant lands 
in quantities which surprise all who see the statistics for the 
first time. The ratio of increase is very startling. Take for 
instance, the figures given by Mr. Morris at the time of the 
great Colonial and Indian Exhibition, in London. Compare 
double decades of years. 

1845, £886,888. 
1865, £3,185,984. 
1885, £7,587,523. 

In the Colonial Exhibition at London, in 1886, fruits from 
the remote colonies were exhibited under conditions which 
proved that, before long, it may be possible to place such 
delicacies as the-Cherimoyer, the Sweet-cup, Sweet-sop, Ram- 
butan, Mango and Mangosteen, at even our most northern sea- 
ports. Furthermore, it seems to me likely that with an in- 
crease in our knowledge with regard to the microbes which 
produce decay, we may be able to protect the delicate fruits 
from injury for any reasonable period. Methods which will 
supplement refrigeration are sure to come in the very near 
future, so that even in a country so vast as our own, the most 
perishable fruits will be transported through its length and 
breadth without harm. 

The canning industry and swift transportation are likely to 
diminish zeal in searching for new fruits, since, as we have 
seen in the case of the cereals, we are prone to move in lines 
of least resistance and leave well enough alone. 

To what extent are our present fruits likely to be improved? 
Even those who have watched the improvement in the quality 
of some of our fruits, like oranges, can hardly realize how 
great has been the improvement within historic times in the 
character of certain pears, apples, and so on. 

The term historic is used advisedly, for there are pre-historic 
fruits which might serve as a point of departure in the consid- 
eration of the question. In the ruins of the lake-dwellings 
in Switzerland, 24 charred apples have been found, which are 



288 G. L. Ooodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

in some cases, plainly of small size, hardly equalling ordinary 
crab apples. But, as Dr. Sturtevant has shown, in certain 
directions, there has been no marked change of type, the 
change is in quality. 

Incomparing the earlier descriptions of fruits with modern 
accounts it is well to remember that the high standards by 
which fruits are now judged are of recent establishment. 
Fruits which would once have been esteemed excellent, would 
to-day be passed by as unworthy of regard 
. It seems probable that the list of seedless fruits will be 
materially lengthened, provided our experimental horticultur- 
ists make use of the material at their command. The com- 
mon fruits which have very few or no seeds are the banana, 
pineapple and certain oranges. Others mentioned by Mr. 
Darwin as well known are the bread-fruit, pomegranate, 
azarole or Neapolitan medlar, and date palms. In commenting 
upon these fruits, Mr. Darwin 26 says that most horticulturists 
"look at the great size and anomalous development of the 
fruit as the cause and sterility as the result," but he holds the 
opposite view as more probable, that is, that the sterility, com- 
ing about gradually, leaves free for other growth the abundant 
supply of building material which the forming seed would 
otherwise have. He admits, however, that "there is an antag- 
onism between the two forms of reproduction, by seeds and 
hy buds when either is carried to an extreme degree which is 
independent of any incipient sterility." 

Most plant-hybrids are relatively infertile, but by no means 
wholly sterile. With this sterility there is generally aug- 
mented vegetative vigor, as shown by Nageli. Partial or com- 
plete sterility and corresponding luxuriance of root, stem, 
leaves and flower, may come about in other obscure ways, and 
such cases are familiar to botanists. 10 Now it seems highly 
probable that either by hybridizing directed to this special 
end, or by careful selection of forms indicating this tendency 
to the correlated changes, we may succeed in obtaining impor- 
tant additions to our seedless or nearly seedless plants. 
Whether the ultimate profit would be large enough to pay for 
the time and labor involved is a question which we need not 
enter into ; there appears to me no reasonable doubt that such 
efforts would be successful. There is no reason in the nature 
of things why we should not have strawberries without the 
so-called seeds ; blackberries and raspberries, with only deli- 
cious pulp ; and large grapes as free from seeds as the small 
ones which we call "currants" but which are really grapes 
from Corinth. 

These and the coreless apples and pears of the future, the 
stoneless cherries and plums, like the common fruits before 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 289 

mentioned must be propagated by bud division, and be open 
to the tendency to diminished strength said to be the conse- 
quence of continued bud-propagation. But this bridge need 
not be crossed until we come to it. Bananas have been per- 
petuated in this way for many centuries, and pineapples since 
the discovery of America, so that the borrowed trouble alluded 
to is not threatening. First we must catch our seedless fruits. 

Which of our wild fruits are promising subjects for selec- 
tion and cultivation ? 

Mr. Crozier of Michigan has pointed out 28 the direction in 
which this research may prove most profitable. He enumer- 
ates many of our small fruits and nuts which can be improved. 

Another of our most careful and successful horticulturists 
believes that the common blueberry and its allies are very 
suitable for this purpose and offer good material for experi- 
menting. The sugar-plum, or so-called shadbush, has been im- 
proved in many particulars, and others can be added to this 
list. 

But again we turn very naturally to Japan, the country from 
which our gardens have received many treasures. Referring 
once more to Professor Georgeson's studies, 27 we must mention 
the varieties of Japanese apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries 
and persimmons. The persimmons are already well-known in 
some parts of our country, under the name " kaki " and they 
will doubtless make rapid progress in popular favor. 

The following are less familiar : Actinidia arguta and 
<Doluoilis, with delicious berries ; 

Stauntonia, an evergreeen vine yielding a palatable fruit ; 

Myrica rubra, & small tree with an acidulous juicy fruit ; 

Elceagnus umbellata, with berries for preserves. 

The active and discriminating horticultural journals in 
America and Europe are alive to the possibilities of new Jap- 
anese fruits, and it cannot be very long before our list is con- 
siderably increased. 

It is absolutely necessary to recollect that in most cases 
variations are slight. Dr. Masters and Mr. Darwin have called 
attention to this and have adduced many illustrations, all of 
which show the necessity of extreme patience and caution. 
The general student curious in such matters can have hardly 
any task more instructive than the detection of the variations 
in such common plants as the blueberry, the wild cherry, or 
the like. It is an excellent preparation for a practical study 
of the variations in our wild fruits suitable for selection. 

It was held by the late Dr. Gray that the variations in nature 
by which species have been evolved were led along useful 
lines, a view which Mr. Darwin regretted he could not enter- 
tain. However this may be, all acknowledge that by the hand 



290 O. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

of the cultivator variations can be led along useful lines ; and 
furthermore the hand which selects must uphold them in their 
unequal strife. In other words it is one thing to select a variety 
and another to assist it in maintaining its hold upon existence. 
Without the constant help of the cultivator who selects the 
useful variety, there comes a reversion to the ordinary specific 
type which is fitted to cope with its surroundings. 

I think you can agree with me that the prospect for new 
fruits and for improvements in our established favorites is 
fairly good. 

IV. Timbers and Cabinet Woods. 

Can we look for new timbers and cabinet woods ? Compar- 
atively few of those in common use are of recent introduction. 
Attempts have been made to bring into great prominence some 
of the excellent trees of India and Australia which furnish wood 
of much beauty and timber of the best quality. A large pro- 
portion of all the timbers of the South Seas are characterized 
by remarkable firmness of texture and high specific gravity. 28 
The same is noticed in many of the woods of the Indies. 
A few of the heavier and denser sorts, like Jarrah, of West 
Australia, and Sabicu of the Caribbean Islands, have met with 
deserved favor in England, but the cost of transportation mili- 
tates against them. It is a fair question whether, in certain 
parts of our country, these trees and others which can be util- 
ized for veneers, may not be cultivated to advantage. Atten- 
tion should be again called to the fact that many plants suc- 
ceed far better in localities which are remote from their origin 
but where they find conditions substantially like those which 
they have left. This fact, to which we must again refer in 
detail with regard to certain other classes of plants, may have 
some bearing upon the introduction of new timber trees. 
Certain drawbacks exist with regard to the timber of some of 
the more rapidly growing hard-wood trees which have pre- 
vented their taking a high place in the scale of values in 
mechanical engineering. 

One of the most useful soft-wooded trees in the world is 
the Kauri. It is restricted in its range to a comparatively 
small area in the North Island of New Zealand. It is now 
being cut down with a recklessness which is as prodigal and 
shameful as that which has marked our own treatment of 
forests here. * It should be said, however, that this destruction 
is under protest, in spite of which it would seem to be a ques- 
tion of only a few years when the great Kauri groves of Kew 
Zealand will be a thing of the past. Our energetic Forest 
Department has on its hands problems just like this which 
perplexes one of the new lands of the South. The task in 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 291 

both cases is double : to preserve the old treasures and to bring 
in new. 

The energy shown by Baron von Mueller, the renowned 
Government Botanist of Victoria and by various Forest de- 
partments in encouraging the cultivation of timber trees will 
assuredly meet with success ; one can hardly hope that this 
success will appear fully demonstrated in the lifetime of those 
now living, but I cannot think that many years will pass before 
the promoters of such enterprises may take fresh courage. 

In a modest structure in the City of Sydney, New South 
Wales, Mr. Maiden 38 has brought together, under great diffi- 
culties, a large collection of the useful products of the vegeta- 
ble kingdom as represented in Australia. It is impossible to 
look at the collection of woods in that Museum or at the similar 
and more showy one in Kew, without believing that the field 
of forest culture must receive rich material from the Southern 
hemisphere. 

Before leaving this part of our subject, it may be well to 
take some illustrations in passing, to show how important is 
the influence exerted upon the utilization of vegetable products 
by causes which may, at first, strike one as being rather remote. 

(1) Photography makes use of the effect of light on chroma- 
tized gelatin to produce under a negative the basis of relief 
plates for engraving. The degree of excellence reached in 
modifications of this simple device has distinctly threatened 
the very existence of wood engraving, and hence follows a 
diminished degree of interest in box-wood and its substitutes. 

(2) Iron, and in its turn steel, is used in ship-building and 
this renders of greatly diminished interest all questions which 
concern the choice of the different oaks, and similar woods : 

(3) But on the other hand there is increased activity in 
certain directions, best illustrated by the extraordinary devel- 
ment of the chemical methods for manufacturing wood pulp. 
By the improved processes, strong fibers suitable for fine felt- 
ing on the screen and fit for the best grades of certain lines of 
paper are given to us from rather inferior sorts of wood. He 
would be a rash prophet who should venture to predict what 
will be the future of this wonderful industry, but it is plain 
that the time is not far distant when acres now worthless may 
be covered by trees under cultivation growing for the pulp- 
maker. 

There is no department of Economic Botany more promis- 
ing in immediate results than that of Arboriculture. 

V. Vegetable Fibers. 

The vegetable fibers known to commerce are either plant 
hairs, of which we take cotton as the type, or filaments of 



292 G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

bast-tissue, represented by flax. JSTo new plant hairs have 
been suggested which can compete in any way for spinning 
with those yielded by the species of Gossypium, or cotton, but 
experiments more or less systematic and thorough are being 
carried on with regard to the improvement of the varieties of 
the species. Plant hairs for the stuffing of cushions and pil- 
lows need not be referred to in connection with this subject. 

Countless sorts of plants have been suggested as sources of 
good bast-fibers for spinning and for cordage, and many of 
these make capital substitutes for those already in the factories. 
But the questions of cheapness of production, and of subse- 
quent, preparation for use, have thus far militated against suc- 
cess. There may be much difference between the profits 
promised by a laboratory experiment and those resulting from 
the same process conducted on a commercial scale. The exist- 
ence of such differences has been the rock on which many 
enterprises seeking to introduce new fibers have been wrecked. 

In dismissing this portion of our subject it may be said that 
a process for separating fine fibers from undesirable structural 
elements and from resin like substances which accompany 
them, is a great desideratum. If this were supplied, many 
new species would assume great prominence at once. 

VI. Tanning Materials. 

"What new tanning materials can be confidently sought for? 
In his "Useful Native Plants of Australia," Mr. Maiden 28 
describes over thirty species of " Wattles " or Acacias, and 
about half as many Eucalypts, which have been examined for 
the amount of tanning material contained in the bark. In all, 
87 Australian species have been under examination. Besides 
this, much has been done looking in the same direction at the 
suggestion and under the direction of Baron von Mueller, of 
Victoria. This serves to indicate how great is the interest in 
this subject, and how wide is the field in our own country for 
the introduction of new tanning plants. 

It seems highly probable, however, that artificial tanning 
substances will at no distant day replace the crude matters now 
employed. 

VII. Resins, Etc. 

Resins, oils, gums and medicines from the vegetable king- 
dom would next engage our attention if they did not seem 
rather too technical for this occasion, and to possess an interest 
on the whole somewhat too limited. But an allied substance 
may serve to represent this class of products and indicate the 
drift of present research. 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 293 

India Rubber, ." — Under this term are included numerous 
substances which possess a physical and chemical resemblance 
to each other. An Indian Ficus, the early source of supply, 
soon became inadequate to furnish the quantity used in the 
arts even when the manipulation of rubber was almost unknown. 
Later, supplies came from Hevea of Brazil, generally known 
as Para rubber, and from Castilloa, sometimes called Central 
American Rubber, and from Manihot Glaziovii Ceara rubber. 
Not only are these plants now successfully cultivated in experi- 
mental gardens in the Tropics, but many other rubber-yielding 
species have been added to the list. The Landolp'hias are 
among the most promising of the whole : these are the Afri- 
can rubbers. Now in addition to these which are the chief 
source of supply, we have Willughheia, from the Malayan 
Peninsula, Leuconotis, CAilocarjms, Alstonia, Forsteronia, 
and a species of a genus formerly known as Urostigma, but 
now united with Ficus. These names, which have little sig- 
nificance as they are here pronounced in passing, are given now 
merely to impress upon our minds the fact that the sources of 
a single commercial article may be exceedingly diverse. Under 
these circumstances search is being made not only for the best 
varieties of these species but for new species as well. 

There are few excursions in the Tropics which possess 
greater interest to a botanist who cares for the industrial 
aspects of plants than the walks through the Gardens at Buiten- 
zorg in Java and at Singapore. At both these stations the 
experimental Gardens lie at some distance from the great 
gardens which the tourist is expected to visit, but the exertion 
well repays him for all discomfort. Under the almost vertical 
rays of the sun, are here gathered the rubber-yielding plants 
from different countries, all growing under conditions favora- 
ble for decisions as to their relative value. At Buitenzorg a 
well-equipped laboratory stands ready to answer practical ques- 
tions as to quality and composition of their products, and year 
by year the search extends. 

I mention this not as an isolated example of what is being- 
accomplished in Commercial Botany, but as a fair illustration 
of the thoroughness with which the problems are being at- 
tacked. It should be further stated that at the Garden in 
question assiduous students of the subject are eagerly wel- 
comed and are provided with all needed appliances for carry- 
ing on technical, chemical and pharmaceutical investigations. 
Therefore I am justified in saying that there is every reason 
for believing that in the very near future new sources of our 
most important products will be opened up, and new areas 
placed under successful cultivation. 

At this point, attention must be called to a very modest and 
convenient handbook on the Commercial Botany of the Nine- 



294 G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

teenth Century by Mr. Jackson of the Botanical Museum 
attached to the Royal Gardens, Kew, which not only embodies 
a great amount of well-arranged information relative to the 
new useful plants, but is, at the same time, a record of the 
existing state of things in all these departments of activity. 

VIII. Fraokant Plants. 

Another illustration of our subject might be drawn from a 
class of plants which repays close study from a biological 
point of view, namely, those which yield perfumes. 

In speaking of the future of our fragrant plants we must 
distinguish between those of commercial value and those of 
purely horticultural interest. The former will be less and less 
cultivated in proportion as synthetic chemistry by its manu- 
facture of perfumes replaces the natural by the artificial pro- 
ducts, for example, Coumarin, Vanillin, Nerolin, Heliotropin, 
and even Oil of Wintergreen. 

But do not understand me as intimating that Chemistry 
can ever furnish substitutes for living fragrant plants. Our 
gardens will always be sweetened by them, and the possibilities 
in this direction will continue to extend both by contributions 
from abroad and by improvement in our present cultivated 
varieties. Among the foreign acquisitions are the fragrant 
species of Andropogon. Who would suspect that the tropical 
relatives of our sand-loving grasses are of high commercial 
value as sources of perfumery oils? 

The utility to the plant of fragrance in the flower and the 
relation of this to cross-fertilization, are apparent to even a 
casual observer. But the fragrance of an aromatic leaf does 
not always give us the reason for its being. 

It has been suggested for certain cases that the volatile oils 
escaping from the plants in question may, by absorption, exert 
a direct influence in mitigating the fierceness of action of the 
sun's rays. Other explanations have also been made, some of 
which are even more fanciful than the last. 

When, however, one has seen that the aromatic plants of 
Australia are almost free from attacks of insects and fungi, 
and has learned to look on the impregnating substances in 
some cases as protective against predatory insects and small 
foes of all kinds, and in others as fungicidal, he is tempted to 
ask whether all the substances of marked odor which we find 
in certain groups of plants may not play a similar role. 

It is a fact of great interest to the surgeon that in many 
plants there is associated with the fragrant principle a marked 
antiseptic or fungicidal quality ; conspicuous examples of this 
are afforded by species of Eucalyptus, yielding Eucalyptol, 
Styrax, yielding Styrone, Thymus yielding Thymol. It is inter- 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 295 

esting to note, too, that some of these most modern antisep- 
tics were important constituents in the balsamic vulneraries of 
the earliest surgery. 

IX. Florists' Plants. 

Florists' plants and the floral fashions of the future consti- 
tute an engaging subject which we can touch only lightly. It 
is reasonably clear that while the old favorite species will hold 
their ground in the guise of improved varieties, the new 
introductions will come in the shape of plants with flowering 
branches which retain their blossoms for a somewhat long 
period, and especially those in which the flowers precede the 
leaves. In short the next real fashion in our gardens is proba- 
bly to be the flowering shrub and flowering tree, like those 
which are such favorites in the country from which the West- 
ern world has gladly taken the gift of the Chrysanthemum. 29 

Twice each year of late, a reception has been held by the 
Emperor and Empress of Japan. The receptions are in 
autumn and in the spring That in the autumn, popularly 
known as the Emperor's reception, has for its floral decorations 
the myriad forms of the national flower, the chrysanthemum ; 
that which is given in spring, the Empress' reception, comes 
when the cherry blossoms are at their best. One has little 
idea of the wealth of beauty in masses of flowering shrubs 
and trees, until he has seen the floral displays in the Imperial 
Gardens and the Temple grounds in Tokio. 

To Japan 29 and China also, we are indebted for many of the 
choicest plants of our gardens, but the supply of species is by 
no means exhausted. By far the larger number of the desira- 
ble plants have already found their way into the hands of culti- 
vators, but often under conditions which have restricted their 
dissemination through the flower-loving community. There 
are many which ought to be widely known, especially the 
fascinating dwarf shrubs and dwarf trees of the far East, 
which are sure to find sooner or later a warm welcome among 
us. 

X. Forage Plants. 

Next to the food plants for man, there is no single class of 
commercial plants of greater interest than the food-plants for 
flocks and herds. Forage plants, wild and cultivated, are 
among the most important and highly valued resources of vast 
areas. ISTo single question is of more vital consequence to our 
farthest west and southwest. 

It so happens that the plants on which the pastoralist relies 
grow or are grown on soil of inferior value to the agriculturist. 
Even soil which is almost sterile may possess vegetation on 
which flocks and herds may graze, and, further, these animals 
may thrive in districts where the vegetation appears at first 



296 G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

sight too scanty or too forbidding, even to support life. 
There are immense districts in parts of the Australian conti- 
nent where flocks are kept on plants so dry and desert-like that 
an inexperienced person would pass them by as not fit for 
his sheep, and yet, as Mr. Samuel Dixon 30 has well shown, these 
plants are of high nutritive value and are attractive to flocks. 

Relegating to the notes to be published with this address 
brief descriptions of a few of the fodder plants suggested for 
use in dry districts, I shall now mention the salt-bushes of 
various sorts, and the allied desert plants of Australia as worth 
a careful trial on some of our very dry regions in the farthest 
west. There are numerous other excellent fodder plants 
adapted to dry but not parched areas which can be brought in 
from the corresponding districts of the southern hemisphere 
and from the East. 

At an earlier stage of this address, I have had occasion to 
refer to Baron von Mueller, whose efforts looking towards the 
introduction of useful plants into Australasia have been aided 
largely by his convenient treatise on economic plants. It may 
be said in connection with the fodder plants, especially, that 
much which the Baron has written can be applied mutatis 
mutandis to parts of our own country. 

The important subject of introducing fodder plants has been 
purposely reserved to the last because it permits us to examine 
a practical point of great interest. This is the caution which 
it is thought necessary to exercise when a species is transferred 
by our own choice from one country to another. I say, by 
our choice, for whether we wish it or not certain plants will 
introduce themselves. In these days of frequent and intimate 
intercommunication between different countries, the exclusion 
of foreign plants' is simply impossible. Our common weeds 
are striking illustrations of the readiness with which plants of 
one country make for themselves a home in another. 31 All but 
two of the prominent weeds of the eastern States are foreign 
intruders. 

There are all grades of persistence in these immigrants. 
Near the ballast grounds of every harbor, or the fields close by 
woolen and paper mills where foreign stock is used, you will 
observe many foreign plants which have been introduced by 
seed. For many of these you will search in vain a second 
year. A few others persist for a year or two longer, but with 
uncertain tenure of the land which they have invaded : others 
still have come to stay. But happily some of the intruders 
which seem at first to gain a firm foot-hold, lose their ground 
after a while. We have a conspicuous example of this in a 
hawkweed, which was very threatening in New England two 
years ago, but is now relaxing its hold. 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 297 

Another illustration is afforded by a water-plant which we 
have given to the old world. This plant, called in our bot- 
anies Anacharis, or Elodea, is so far as I am aware, not trouble- 
some in our ponds and water-ways, but when it was carried to 
England, perhaps as a plant for the aquarium, it was thrown 
into streams and rivers with a free hand. It spread with re- 
markable rapidity and became such an unmitigated nuisance 
that it was called a curse. Efforts to extirpate it merely 
increased its rate of growth. Its days of mischief are how- 
ever nearly over, or seem to be drawing to a close, at least so 
Mr. Lynch of the Botanic Garden in Cambridge, England, 
and others of my informants think. The history of the plant 
shows that even under conditions which so far as we can see, 
are identical with those under which the plant grew in its 
home, it may for a time take a fresh lease of life and thrive 
with an undreamed-of energy. 

What did Anacharis find in the waters of England and the 
continent that it did not have at home, and why should its 
energy begin to wane now ? 

In Australasia one of the most striking of these intruders 
is Sweet-briar. Introduced as a hedge plant it has run over 
certain lands like a weed, and disputes every acre of some 
arable plats. From the facility with which it is propagated, it 
is almost ineradicable. There is something astounding in the 
manner in which it gains and holds its ground. Gorse and 
brambles and thistles are troublesome in some localities, and 
they prove much less easy to control than in Europe. The 
effect produced on the mind of the colonist by these intruding 
pests, is everywhere the same. Whenever in an examination 
of the plants likely to be worthy of trial in our American dry 
lands, the subject was mentioned by me to Australians, I was 
always enjoined to be cautious as to what plants I might sug- 
gest for introduction from their country into our own. .-My 
good friends insisted that it was bad enough to have as pests 
the plants which come in without our planning or choice, and 
this caution seems to me one which should not be forgotten. 

It would take us too far from our path to inquire what can 
be the possible reasons for such increase of vigor and fertility 
in plants which are transferred to a new home. We should 
have to examine all the suggestions which have been made, 
such as fresh soil, new skies, more efficient animal friends, or 
less destructive enemies. We should be obliged also to see 
whether the possible wearing out of the energy of some of 
these plants after a time, might not be attributable to the 
decadence of vigor through uninterrupted bud-propagation, 
and we should have to allude to many other questions allied to 
these. But for this time fails. 



298 G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

Lack of time also renders it impossible to deal with the 
questions which attach themselves to our main question, espe- 
cially as to the limits of effect which cultivation may produce. 
We cannot touch the problem of inheritance of acquired 
peculiarities, or the manner in which cultivation predisposes 
the plant to innumerable modifications. Two of these modifi- 
cations may be mentioned in passing, because they serve to 
exemplify the practical character of our subject. 

Cultivation brings about in plants very curious morphologi- 
cal changes. For example, in the case of a well known vege- 
table the number of metamorphosed type-leaves forming the 
ovary is two, and yet under cultivation, the number increases 
irregularly until the full number of units in the type of the 
flower is reached. Professor Bailey of Cornell has called 
attention to some further interesting changes in the tomato, 
but the one ■ mentioned suffices to illustrate the direction of 
variation which plants under cultivation are apt to take. 
Monstrosities are very apt to occur in cultivated plants, and 
under certain conditions may be perpetuated in succeeding 
generations, thus widening the field from which utilizable 
plants may be taken. 

Another case of change produced by cultivation is likewise 
as yet wholly unexplained, although much studied, namely the 
mutual interaction of scion and stock in grafting, budding, and 
the like. It is probable that a further investigation of this 
subject may yet throw light on new possibilities in plants. 

We have now arrived at the most practical question of all, 
namely — 

In what way can the range of commercial botany be ex- 
tended ? In what manner or by what means can the introduc- 
tion of new species be hastened 2 

It is possible that some of you are aware of the great 
amount of uncoordinated work which has been done and is 
now in hand in the direction of bringing in new plants. 

The competition between the importers of new plants is so 
great both in the Old World and the New that a very large pro- 
portion of the species which would naturally commend them- 
selves for the use of florists, for the adornment of green- 
houses, or for commercial ends, have been at one time or 
another brought before the public or are being accumulated in 
stock. The same is true although to a less extent with regard 
to useful vegetables and fruit. Hardly one of those which 
we can suggest as desirable for trial, has not already been 
investigated in Europe or this country, and reported on. The 
pages of our chemical, pharmaceutical, medical, horticultural, 
agricultural and trade journals, especially those of high grade, 
contain a wealth of material of this character. 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 299 

But what is needed is this, that the promising plants should 
be systematically investigated under exhaustive conditions. 
It is not enough that an enthusiast here, or an amateur there 
should give a plant a trial under imperfectly understood con- 
ditions, and then report success or failure. The work should 
be thorough and every question answered categorically, so that 
we might be placed in possession of all the facts relative to the 
object experimented upon. But such an undertaking requires 
the cooperation of many different agencies. I shall venture 
to mention some of these. 

In the first place, — Botanic Gardens amply endowed for 
research. The Arnold Arboretum, the Shaw Garden, and the 
Washington Experimental Garden, are American illustrations 
of what is needed for this purpose. University gardens have 
their place in instruction, but cannot wisely undertake this 
kind of work. 

In the second place, — Museums and Laboratories of Eco- 
nomic Botany. Much good work in this direction has been 
done in this country by the National Museum and by the 
department in charge 33 of the investigation of new plants. 
We need institutions like those at Kew in England, and at 
Buitenzorg in Java, which keep in close touch with all the 
world. The founding of an establishment on a scale of mag- 
nitude commensurate with the greatness and needs of our 
country is an undertaking which waits for some one of our 
wealthy men. 

In the third place, — Experiment Stations. These may, 
within the proper limits of their sphere of action, extend the 
study of plants beyond the established varieties to the species, 
and beyond the species to equivalent species in other genera. 
It is a matter of regret that so much of the energy displayed 
in these stations in this country, and we may say abroad, has 
not been more economically directed. 

Great economy of energy must result from the recent 
change by which coordination of action is assured. The 
influence which the stations must exert on the welfare of our 
country, and the development of its resources is incalculable. 

In the last place, but by no means least, the cooperation of 
all who are interested in scientific matters, through their obser- 
vation of isolated and associated phenomena connected with 
plants of supposed utility, and by the cultivation of such 
plants by private individuals, unconnected with any State, 
governmental, or academic institutions. 

By these agencies, wisely directed and energetically em- 
ployed, the domains of commercial and industrial botany, will 
be enlarged. To some of the possible results in these domains, 
I have endeavored to call your attention. 



300 G. L. Ooodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 



Notes. 

The following are among the more useful works of a general character, deal- 
ing with the subject. Others are referred to either in the text or notes. The 
reader may consult also the list of works on Economic Botany in the catalogue 
published by the Linnasan Society. 

Select Extra-tropical Plants, readily eligible for industrial culture or naturaliza- 
tion, with indications of their native countries and some of their uses. By Baron 
Ferd. von Mueller, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., etc, Government Botanist for Victoria. 
(Melbourne), 1S88. Seventh edition, revised and enlarged. 

At the close of his treatise on industrial plants, Baron von Mueller has grouped 
the genera indicating the different classes of useful products in such a manner 
that we can ascertain the respective numbers belonging to the genera. Of course 
many of these genera figure m more than one category. 

He has also arranged the plants accordiog to the countries naturally producing 
them. * 

Useful Native Plants of Australia, (including Tasmania). By J. H. Maiden, 
F.L.S., Curator of the Technological Museum of New South Wales, Sydney. 
(Sydney), 1889. 

See also note 19. 

Handbook of Commercial Geography. By Geo. G. Chisholm, M.A., B.Sc. 
London, 1889. 

New Commercial Plants with directions how to grow them to the best advan- 
tage. By Thomas Christy (London), Christy and Co. 

Dictionary of popular names of the plants which furnish the natural and 
acquired wants of man. By John Smith, A.L.S. (London), 1882. 

Cultivated Plants. Their propagation and improvement. By F. W. Burbage. 
(London), 1877. 

The Wanderings of Plants and animals from their first home. By Victor 
Hehn, edited by James Steven Stallybrass, (London) 1885. 

Researches into the Early History of Mankind, and the Development of Civiliza- 
tion. By Edward B. Ttlor, D.C.L., LL.D., F.U.S., 1878. 

1 The number of species of Phamogamia has been given by many writers as 
not far from 150,000. But the total number of species recognized by Bentham 
and Hooker in the Genera Plantarum (Durand's Index) is 100,220, in 210 Natural 
Orders and 8,417 genera. 

'- Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant, to whose kindness I am indebted for great assist- 
ance in the matter of references has placed at my disposal many of his notes on 
edible plants, etc. From his enumeration it appears that if we count all the 
plants which have been cultivated for food at one time or another, the list con- 
tains 1,192 species, but if we count all the plants which " either habitually or 
during famine periods are recorded to have been eaten," we obtain a list of no 
less than 4,690 species, or about three and one-half per cent of all known species 
of plants. But. as Sir Joseph Hooker has said, the products of many plants 
though eatable, are not fit to eat. 

3 The Folk-Lore of Plants. By T. F. Thiselton Dyer, 1889. 

4 In Dr. Sturtevant's list. 88 species of Gramineae are counted as food-plants 
under cultivation, while the number of species in this order which can be or 
have been utilized as food amounts to 146. Our smaller number 20 comprises 
only those which have been grown on a large scale anywhere. 

5 "In Agricultural Museum at Poppelsdorf, 600 varieties are exhibited." 

6 E. L. S. in letter. Quoted from Seedsman's catalogue. 

1 The best account of the early history of these and other cultivated plants can 
be found in the classical work of De Candolle " Origine des Plantes Cullivees (Paris) 
translated in the International series, History of Cultivated Plants, (N. Y.) The 
reader should consult also Darwin's Animals and Plants under Domestication. 

8 Food-grains of India. A. H. Church, London, 1886, p. 34. In this instructive 
work the reader will find much information regarding the less common articles of 
food Of Panicum frumeniaceum Professor Georgeson states in a letter that it 
is grown in Japan for its grain which is used for food, but here would take rank 
as a fodder plant. 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 301 

9 In order to avoid possible misapprehension, it should be stated that there are 
a few persons who hold that at least some of our cereals, and other cultivated 
plants, for that matter, have not undergone material improvement but are essen- 
tially unmodified progeny. Under this view, if we could look back into the 
farthest past, we should see our cereals growing wild and in such admirable con- 
dition that we should unhesitatingly select them for immediate use. This extreme 
position is untenable. 

Again, there are a few extremists who hold that some plants under cultivation 
have reached their culminating point, and must now remain stationary or begin 
to retrograde. 

10 Gray's Botanical Text Book. Vols, i and ii. 

11 A Selection from the Physiological and Horticultural Papers, published in the 
Transactions of the Royal and Horticultural Societies, by the late Thomas 
Andrew Knight, Esq., President of the Hort. Soc. London, (London) 1841. 

12 Illustrations of the Manners and Customs and Condition of the North American 
Indians. By George Catlin, London, 1876. A reprint of the account published 
in 1841 of travels in 1832-40. 

"Plate 278 is a party of Sioux, in bark canoes (purchased of the Chippewas), 
gathering the wild rice, which grows in immense fields around the shores of the 
rivers and lakes of these northern regions, and used by the Indians as an article 
of food. The mode, of gathering it is curious and, as seen in the drawing, one 
woman paddles the canoe, whilst another with a stick in each hand, bends the 
rice over the canoe with one, and strikes it with the other, which shakes it into 
the canoe, which is constantly moving along until it is filled." Vol. ii, p. 208. 

13 Schliemann's carbonized specimens exhumed in Greece are said to be " very 
hard, fine-grained, sharp, very flat on grooved side, different from any wheats now 
known." Am. Antiq., 1880, 66. 

The carbonized grains in the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, Mass., are small. 

14 Prehistoric Times as illustrated by Ancient Remains and the manners and 
customs of modern savages. By John Lubbock, Bart., (New York), 4th edn., 
1886. 

" Three varieties of wheat were cultivated by the Lake Dwellers, who also 
possessed two kinds of barley and two of millet. Of these the most ancient and 
most important were the six-rowed barley and small "Lake Dwellers'" wheat. 
The discovery of Egyptian wheat (Triticum turgidum\ at Wangen and Roben- 
hausen, is particularly interesting. Oats were cultivated during the bronze age, 
but are absent from all the stone age villages Rye was also unknown," p. 216. 

"Wheat is most common, having been discovered at Merlen. Moosseedorf and 
Wangen. At the latter place, indeed, many bushels of it were found, the grains 
being in large thick lumps. In other cases, the grains are free, and without 
chaff, resembling our present wheat in size and form, while more rarely they are 
still in the ear." 115 species of plants have been identified. Heer. Keller. 

15 Les Plantes Polageres, Vilmobin, Faris. Translated into English under the 
direction of W. Robinson, Editor of the (London) "Garden," 1885, and entitled 
The Vegetable Garden. 

16 1. c, English Edn., p 104. 

17 According to notes made by Mr. Manning, Sec. Massachusetts Horticultural 
Society, (Hist. Mass. Hort. Society) the tomato was introduced into Salem, Mass., 
about 1802 by Michele Felice Corne, an Italian painter, but he found it difficult to 
persuade people even to taste the fruit (Felt's Annals of Salem, vol. ii, 631). It 
was said to have been introduced into Philadelphia by a French refugee from 
San Domingo in 1798. It was used as an article of food in New Orleans in 1812 
but was not sold in the markets of Philadelphia until 1829. It did not come 
into general use in the north until some years after the last named date. 

18 '■ In Spain and those hot regions, they use to eat the (Love) apples prepared 
and boiled with pepper, salt, and olives; but they yield very little nourishment 
to the bodies, and the same nought and corrupt. Likewise they doe eat the 
apples with oile, vinegar, and pepper mixed together for sauce to their meat even 
as we in these Cold Countries do Mustard." Gerard's Herbal. 346. 

*~ I9 Commercial Botany of the Nineteenth Century. By John R. Jacksox, A.L.S. 
Cassell and Company, London, 1890. 



302 G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 

Mr. Jackson, who is the Curator of the Museums, Royal Gardens, Kew, has 
embodied in this treatise a great amount of valuable information, well arranged 
for ready reference. 

20 Department of Agriculture Report for 1870, p. 404-428. Only those are here 
copied from Dr. Palmer's list which he expressly states are extensively used. 

Ground-nut (Apios tuberosa); Aesculus Californica; Agave Americana; Nuphar 
advena; Prairie-potato, {Psoralea esculenta) ; Scirpus lacustris; Sagittaria varia- 
bilis; Kamass-root (Camassia esculenta) ; Solarium Fendleri (supposed by him to 
be the original of the cultivated potato); Acorns of various sort; Mesquite, 
(Algarobia glandulosa) ; Juniperus occidentals ; Nuts of Garya, Juglans, etc. ; 
Screw-bean {Strombocarpus pubescens) ; various Cactaceas; Yucca; Cherries and 
many wild berries; Chenopodium album, etc. 
. Psoralea esculenta = prairie potato, or Bread-root. Palmer in Agl. Report, 
1870, p. 402. 

The following from Catlin, 1. c, i, p. 122: 

"Corn and dried meat are generally laid in the fall, in sufficient quantities to 
support them through the winter. These are the principal articles of food during 
that long and inclement season ; and in addition to them, they oftentimes have 
in store great quantities of dried squashes, and dried 'pommes blanches,' a 

kind of turnip which grows in great abundance in those regions These 

are dried in great quantities and pounded into a sort of meal and cooked with 
dried meat and corn. Great quantities also are dried and laid away in store for 
the winter season, such as buffalo berries, service berries, strawberries, and wild 
plums." 

"In addition to this we had the luxury of service berries without stint; and 
the buffalo bushes, which are peculiar to these northern regions, lined the banks of 
the river and the defiles in the bluffs, sometimes for miles together, forming almost 
impassible hedges, so loaded with the weight of their fruit that their boughs every- 
where gracefully bending down or resting on the ground. This last shrub (Shep- 
herdia), which may be said to be the most beautiful ornament that decks out the wild 
prairies, forms a striking contrast to the rest of the foliage, from the blue appear- 
ance of its leaves by which it can be distinguished for miles in distance. The 
fruit which it produces in such incredible profusion, hanging in clusters to every 
limb and to every twig, is about the size of ordinary currants and not unlike 
them in color and even in flavor ; being exceeding acid, almost unpalatable until 
they are bitten by frost of autumn, when they are sweetened and their flavor 
delicious, having to the taste much the character of grapes, and I am almost to 
think would produce excellent wine." George Catlin's Illustrations and man- 
ners, customs, and condition of the North American Indians, p. 72, vol. i. 

For much relative to the food of our aborigines, especially of the western 
coast, consult The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America. By 
H. H. Bancroft, (New York), 1875. The following from vol. i, p. 538, indicates 
that inaccuracies have crept into the work: "From the earliest information we 
have of these nations " (the author is speaking of the New Mexicans), " they are 
known to have been tillers of the soil ; and though the implements used and their 
methods of cultivation were both simple and primitive, cotton, corn, wheat, beans, 
and many varieties of fruits which constituted their principal food were raised in 
abundance." 

"Wheat was not grown on the American continent until after the landing of the 
first explorers. 

21 Gard. Chron., 1888. 

' n Pickled Daikon, the large radish, often grated. 

Ginger-roots — Shoga. 

Beans {Glycine hispida), many kinds, and prepared in many ways. 

Beans (Dolichos cultratus), cooked in rice and mixed with it. 

Sliced Hasu, Lotos roots. 

Lily bulbs, boiled whole and the scales torn off as they are eaten. 

Pickled green plums, (TJme-boshi) colored red in the pickle, by the leaves of 
Perilla arguta (Shiso). 

Sliced and dried cucumbers, Kiuri. 

Pieces of Gobo, — Roots of Lappa major. 



G. L. Goodale — Possibilities of Economic Botany. 303 

Eakkio, — Bulbs of Allium Bakeri, boiled in Sbogu. 

Grated Wasabi, — Stem of Eutrema Wasabi. 

Water-cress, — Midzu-tagarashi (not often). 

Also sometimes pickled greens of various kinds, and occasionally chestnut- 
kernels boiled and mixed witb a kind of sweet sauce. 

Nut of the Ginkgo tree. 

Several kinds of seaweeds are also very commonly served witb the rice. Pro- 
fessor C. 0. Georgeson in letter. 

23 1. c. Preface in English Edition. 

24 "Carbonized apples have been found at Wangen, sometimes whole, some- 
times cut in two, or, more rarely, into four pieces and evidently dried and put 

aside for winter use They are small and generally resemble those 

which still grow wild in the Swiss forests ; at Robenhauseu, however, specimens 
have occurred which are of larger size, and probably cultivated. No trace of the 
vine, the walnut, the cherry, or the damson has yet been met with, but stones of 
the wild plum and the Piunus padus have been found." Lubbock, I. c, p. 217. 

25 Animals and Plants under Domestication (Am. Edn.), vol. ii, p. 205-209. 

26 American Garden, N. T. 1890-91. 

27 American Garden, N. Y. 1891. 

28 Useful Native Plants of Australia, by J. H. Maiden, Sydney. 

29 The Flowers of Japan and the Art of Floral Arrangement. By Josiah Con- 
dee, P.R.I.B.A., Architect to the Imperial Japanese Government. Yokohama, 
1891. See also two other works by the same author: Theory of Japanese Flower- 
arrangements, and Art of Landscape-gardening in Japan. (1886.) 

30 Mr. Samuel Dixon's list is in vol. viii (for 1884-85) of the Transactions and 
Proceedings and Report of the Royal Society of South Australia. Adelaide, G. Rob- 
ertson, 1886. 

Bursaria spinosa, " a good stand-by," after the grasses dry up. 

Pomaderris racemosa, " stands stocking well." 

Pittosporum phyllaeroid.es, "sheep exceedingly partial to its foliage." 

Gasuarina quadrivalvis, "tenderness of fiber, wool would be represented by it 
in our finer wool districts." 

Acacias, The Wattles. "Value as an astringent, very great," being curative of 
a malady often caused by eating frozen grass. 

Acacia aneura (mulga). "Must be very nutritious to all animals eating it." 
This is the plant which is such a terror to the stockmen who have to ride through 
the " scrub." 

Cassia, some of the species with good pods and leaves for sheep. 

The foregoing are found in districts which are not wholly arid. 

The following are, more properly, " dry " plants. 

Sida petrophila, "as much liked by sheep as by marsupials." 

Bodonaea viscosa, Native Hop-bush. "Likes warm, red, sandy ground." 

Lycium australe, " Drought never seems to affect it." 

Kochia aphylla: "All kinds of stock are often largely dependent on it during 
protracted droughts." 

Rhagodia parabolica : " Produces a good deal of foliage." 

Atriplex vesicaria: "Can be readily grown wherever the climate is not too 
wet." 

I have transferred only those which Mr. Dixon thinks most worthy of trial. 
Compare also Dr. Yaset's valuable studies of the plants of our dry lands, espec- 
ially Grasses and Forage plants (1878), Grasses of the arid districts of Kansas, 
Nebraska, and Colorado (1886), Grasses of the South (1887. 

31 The weeds of German gardens and agricultural lands are mostly from Medi- 
terranean regions, but the invasions in the uncultivated districts are chiefly from 
America, (such as Oenothera, Mimulus, Rudbeckia). Handbuch der Pflanzengeo- 
graphte, von Dr. Oscar Drude, (Stuttgart), 1890, p. 97. 

33 The list of economic plants published by the Department in Washington is 
remarkably full, and is in every way creditable to those in charge. 



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